Lourdes Grobet has documented the spectacle of Mexican professional wrestling, known as lucha libre (free fighting), for more than 25 years. The only woman to have worked in such proximity to the sport, Grobet has photographed the masked luchadores in many contexts--and always in their signature disguises, which practitioners have worn since 1942, when a wrestler named El Santo stepped into a Mexico City ring wearing a silver mask, literally changing the face of the game forever. The mask, always a symbolically rich object in Mexican culture, serves both as a retreat (into anonymity) and as an attack, as a weapon with which to disconcert and terrorize the opponent. Its visual appeal, especially when set in scenarios outside the ring, was quickly apparent to Grobet, who describes El Santo as "one of the teachers that most influenced me early on." In Lucha Libre: The Family Portraits, Grobet shows the wrestlers with their mothers, wives and girlfriends, sitting for what would almost be a generic family portrait, but for the fantastic costumes of the luchadores themselves. By this simple recontextualizing gesture, we are brought to the threshold of their identities--and held there. The ungainly, monstrous and splendidly defiant stance they convey with this final preservation of anonymity is of course what gives Grobet's pictures their edge. One of Mexico's leading contemporary photographers, Lourdes Grobet was a student of artists Mathias Goeritz, Gilberto Aceves Navarro and Katy Horna, among others. For the past 20 years, she has surveyed Mexican popular culture, from female wrestling, northern emigration and neo-Mayan architecture to Cuban immigration. Her influence on younger generations of Mexican artists, including Gabriel Orozco and Rubén Ortiz Torres, has been considerable.

Margarito acts like any other eleven-year-old aficionado of lucha libre. He worships all the players. But in the summer just before sixth grade, he tumbles over the railing at a match in San Antonio and makes a connection to the world of Mexican wrestling that will ultimately connect him—maybe by blood!—to the greatest hero of all time: the Guardian Angel. A 2012 Pura Belpré Author Honor Award winner! Xavier Garza was born in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. An enthusiastic author, artist, teacher, and storyteller, his work is a lively documentation of the dreams, superstitions, and heroes in the bigger-than-life world of south Texas.

Take one part Mexi-Monster cinema, one part Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, throw in a little Zoro, the WWF and the knit-costume-wearing performance art collective Forcefield, and you come up with the raw, vivid, and psychologically unhinged world of "Lucha Libre" the sports-entertainment phenomenon that first swept Mexico and now the world. Photographer Lourdes Grobet's penentrating study of Mexican professional wrestling culture features more than 500 photographs of "luchadores" like Blue Demon, Santo, The Witch, Adorable Rub', El Solitario and Hurricane Ramirez, as well as pictures of their families, friends and fans--onstage, backstage and even at home. "Lucha Libre" also includes photographs of stickers, flyers, postcards, stills from "Mexi-lucha-cinema," interviews with the wrestlers, essays and much, much more! In this comprehensive 20-year study, Grobet has put together "the" definitive look at Mexico's masked superstars.

A bilingual tale about Little Lilly Lujan who loves her chanclas (flip-flops) going slippety-slappety and flippity-flop. In fact, Lilly refuses any footwear except her favorite pair of flip-flops. "Why does Lilly love her chanclas so much?" her family cries. Lilly doesn't listen. That's why her family nicknames her "Little Chanclas." At baptisms, barbecues, quinceñeras, and picnics, you can hear Little Chanclas going slippety-slap and flippity-flop. Then one day Lilly dances a little too much at a fiesta, her chanclas come apart, a pit bull chews up the remains, and there is no more flip for her flop! Little Chanclas is inconsolable. Crisis ensues as she rejects shoe after shoe. But then a miracle happens. Lilly puts on a pair of soccer shoes. She's a natural. She goes clickety-click. She scores a goal. She's a star! José Lozano is a rising star in the thriving Latino art scene in Los Angeles, California. Born in Los Angeles, his family moved to Juárez, Chihuahua, México, when he was a baby. Growing up on the border, he found many of the cultural touchstones that continue to influence his work today—bad Mexican cinema, lucha libre, fotonovelas, ghost stories, and comic books. Lozano prefers to work in a series, focusing on themes like Mexican wrestlers, paper dolls, and lotería. In fact, the Los Angeles Metro System commissioned his loteria card portraits of various light rail riders for the La Brea/Expo Station. Lozano lives in Fullerton, California, and teaches elementary school in Anaheim.

Lucía zips through the playground in her cape just like the boys, but when theytell her "girls can't be superheroes," suddenly she doesn't feel so mighty. That'swhen her beloved abuela reveals a dazzling secret: Lucía comes from a family ofluchadoras, the bold and valiant women of the Mexican lucha libre tradition.Cloaked in a flashy new disguise, Lucía returns as a recess sensation! But whenshe's confronted with a case of injustice, Lucía must decide if she can stay true tothe ways of the luchadora and fight for what is right, even if it means breaking thesacred rule of never revealing the identity behind her mask. A story about courageand cultural legacy, Lucía the Luchadora is full of pluck, daring, and heart.

Bee stings on the backside! That was just the beginning. Tim was about to enter a world of the past, with bullying boys, stones and Indian spirits of long ago. But they were real spirits, real stones, very real memories… In this powerful family saga, author Tim Tingle tells the story of his family’s move from Oklahoma Choctaw country to Pasadena, TX. Spanning 50 years, Saltypie describes the problems encountered by his Choctaw grandmother—from her orphan days at an Indian boarding school to hardships encountered in her new home on the Gulf Coast. Tingle says, “Stories of modern Indian families rarely grace the printed page. Long before I began writing, I knew this story must be told.” Seen through the innocent eyes of a young boy, Saltypie — a 2011 Skipping Stones honor book, WordCraft Circle 2012 Children's Literature Award-winner, and winner of the 2011 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People in the category of Grades 4-6 — is the story of one family’s efforts to honor the past while struggling to gain a foothold in modern America. Tim Tingle, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, is a sought-after storyteller for folklore festivals, library conferences, and schools across America. At the request of Choctaw Chief Pyle, Tim tells a story to the tribe every year before Pyle’s State of the Nation Address at the Choctaw Labor Day Gathering. Tim’s previous and often reprinted books from Cinco Puntos Press—Walking the Choctaw Road and Crossing Bok Chitto—received numerous awards, but what makes Tim the proudest is the recognition he receives from the American Indian communities. Karen Clarkson, a Choctaw tribal member, is a self-taught artist who specializes in portraits of Native Americans. She did not start painting until after her children had left home; she has since been widely acclaimed as a Native American painter. She lives in San Leandro, California.

For the past 40 years, acclaimed graphic novelist Jaime Hernandez has been creating a Love and Rockets-adjacent world ― set in the heyday of 1960s and ’70s women’s wrestling and lucha libre! ― with an entirely separate cast of characters who have aged and evolved: the beautiful and brutal Bettie Rey, the I.F.W. Pacific Women’s Champion ― a.k.a. Golden Girl ― as well as former champions Pantera Negra, Miss Kitty Perez, and many more. As Hernandez puts it, “It’s my Love and Rockets world that’s not my Love and Rockets world.” This best-of book spotlights the women who are often ignored in pro wrestling in 125 full color illustrations: pin-ups, action shots, fake wrestling magazine covers, all presented in a large paperback format that echoes the lucha libre magazines of the 1960s. Hernandez also discusses the work in an interview with fellow cartoonist Katie Skelly. Despite having created one of the most expansive and remarkable casts of characters of any cartoonist who ever lived (under the umbrella of the ongoing L&R comic book series), acclaimed graphic novelist Jaime Hernandez ― Will Eisner Hall of Famer; Eisner, Harvey, Ignatz, and PEN Award winner; L.A. Times Book Prize winner; and on a very short list of contenders for the title of America’s Greatest Living Cartoonist ― has been privately amassing a body of work that no one else has ever seen for over 40 years. Until now.

A children's picture book about a grandmother bonding with her granddaughters as she teaches them how much they can learn from nature just by being curious.

When it was first published, Crossing Bok Chitto took readers by surprise. This moving and original story about the intersection of Native and African Americans received starred reviews and many awards, including being named an ALA Notable Children's Book and a Jane Addams Honor Book. Jeanne Rorex Bridges' illustrations mesmerized readers--Publishers Weekly noted that her "strong, solid figures gaze squarely out of the frame, beseeching readers to listen, empathize and wonder." Choctaw storyteller Tim Tingle blends songs, flute, and drum to bring the lore of the Choctaw Nation to life in lively historical, personal, and traditional stories. Artist Jeanne Rorex Bridges traces her heritage back to her Cherokee ancestors.

Richard Scarry's Busytown gets a Mexican-American makeover in the marketplace of a buzzing border town from Pura Belpr Medal-winning illustrator Ra l the Third. Bilingual in a new way, this paper over board book teaches readers simple words in Spanish as they experience the bustling life of a border town. Follow Little Lobo and his dog Bernabe as they deliver supplies to a variety of vendors, selling everything from sweets to sombreros, portraits to pi atas, carved masks to comic books